Singer Hazel O'Connor is Jools's guest, singing live and playing her favourite records
Singer Hazel O'Connor is Jools's guest, singing live and playing her favourite records.
Hazel O'Connor was born in Coventry and had an eventful early life! As she wrote in the introduction note of the programme for a gig at "At My Place" in Santa Monica, LA in 1989 "I ran away from my home in Coventry when I was 16.....made and sold clothes in Amsterdam, picked grapes in France, joined a dance troupe that went to Tokyo then onto Beirut (escaping the start of the civil war by one month!) travelled West Africa, crossed the Sahara, sang with a dreadful singing trio for the U.S. troops in Germany and came home to "settle down". Through all this experience of life and the world I realized that singing always cheered me up. I decided to be a singer. Through strange turns of fate I ended up in a film called 'Breaking Glass' I also ended up writing all the songs for the movie"
In 1980, her performance as Kate in Breaking Glass won Hazel the Variety Club of Great Britain Award for 'Best Film Actor' and BAFTA nominations for 'Best Newcomer' and 'Best Film Score.' The album of the same name went Gold and was number 5 in the UK charts for 28 weeks and produced several hit singles, the most successful being the haunting 'Will You'
Subsequent albums include Sons and Lovers, Cover Plus, Smile, Live and Kicking in LA, To Be Freed, Over The Moon.....Live, Private Wars and Five in the Morning. Legal battles plagued Hazel from the early 1980's - in her own words "I became famous, then had a load of court battles to fight against my first record company, I was ripped off, torn up and spat out by the machinery of 'Showbiz'" However, despite the hassles, Hazel continued to record and to play live, touring the UK, Ireland, Europe and the USA with her band, and continuing her career as an actor.
Her current album , released this month, is "Here She Comes".
Last on
Music Played
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The Specials
Free Nelson Mandela
- Now That's What I Call Music 1984 (Various Artists).
- Now.
- 4.
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HOLLAND, JOOLS & HIS RHYTHM SECTION
JOOLS SIG TUNE
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Jerry Byrne
Lights Out
- Rock On.
- Ace Records/Speciality.
- CDCHD1172.
-
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Peanuts Wilson
CAST IRON ARM
- Rock On.
- Ace Records/Speciality.
- CDCHD1172.
-
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Paul Carrack
Come Rain Or Come Shine
- Rain Or Shine.
- Rovi.
- R 2855209.
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Sidney Bechet
I Had It But Its All Gone
- Bechet and Blues Now.
- DJM Records.
- DJML 065.
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Dixieland Seven & Louis Armstrong
Where the Blues were born in New Orleans
- New Orleans Soundtrack.
- Jazz Crusade.
- 30-43.
-
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Barrence Whitfield
My Baby Didn't Come Home
- Dig The Savage Soul + The Savages.
- Bloodshot Records.
- 744302020822.
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Dorothy Love Coates
Every Day Will Be A Sunday
- Women Of Gospels Golden Age (Vol 1).
- Ace Records.
- CDCHD567.
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Hazel O’Connor
Don't You Call Me Darling
- Here She Comes.
- SFE.
- SFE031.
-
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The Special A.K.A.
Free Nelson Mandela
- THE 2 TONE STORY.
- 2 TONE RECORDS.
- CCD-5009.
-
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Small Faces
ITCHYCOO PARK
- SMALL FACES: ULTIMATE COLLECTION.
- SANCTUARY.
- TDSAN-004.
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Hazel O' Connor with Jools Holland & Band
GOD BLESS THE CHILD
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Nina Simone
Do What You Gotta Do
- Released.
- Camden.
- 74321 4321552.
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Hazel O’Connor
Still Of The Night
- Here She Come.
- SFE /Cherry Red Records.
- SFE031.
Hazel O 'Connor
Singer-songwriter and actress Hazel O'Connor Joined Jools in the studio....
The daughter of a soldier from Galway who settled in England after World War II to work in a car plant. She became famous in the early 1980s with hit singles "Eighth Day", "D-Days" and "Will You", as well as starring in the film Breaking Glass....
Broadcast
- Mon 31 Mar 2014 23:00BBC Radio 2